Province puts forced flu shot plan on hold

Nova Scotia Health Minister Leo Glavine says the province will not require health-care workers to get flu shots for this coming flu season.

Nova Scotia’s health minister says there are no plans right now to require health-care workers to get flu shots.

Leo Glavine said the department is examining the issue as British Columbia and Saskatchewan have adopted the mandatory immunization policy. However, that requirement will not be in place here for the coming flu season.

“We will monitor the number of health-care providers in our hospitals who do get flu shots this year,” Glavine said last week.

Dr. Robert Strang, the province’s chief public health officer, recently told The Chronicle Herald that the province is “actively looking at” a mask-vs.-vaccination policy.

Strang said focused efforts

to increase the number of

front-line staff who get immunized has made great strides, particularly at long-term care sites and the IWK Health Centre, but overall the number is around 50 per cent.

There has also been an increase in the number of people getting the flu shot, said Glavine.

“Last year, we led the country in the number of citizens who did get immunized against the flu and I think that kind of pickup, in fact, is one of the reasons we’ve had very, very low incidents of H1N1 compared to some other provinces.”

Glavine said department staff would speak with officials

from provinces that already

have a mandatory immunization policy to gauge their experiences while Strang continues to research the issue and monitors employees during the upcoming flu

season. Patient protection and care is “number 1 and it may be, again, a good policy for us to embrace in the future,” said